Modern Dance Performance Group from Germany presenting show in Los Angeles

In collaboration with the Goethe Institut Los Angeles, Odyssey Theatre is presenting “Eifo Efi” by Mamaza Dance Company from Germany in January of 2017. If you are a modern dance aficionado this is a show you don’t want to miss. There will only be two performances, so get your tickets early. Use our PROMO Code “CAGERMAN”for $25 tickets!

What’s EIFO EFI about?

Wildly talking to themselves, Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah take to the stage. As soon as their feet touch the shiny, mirrored dance floor, their bodies are set into motion, creating almost indescribable scenarios, and virtuoso fragmentary choreographic segments that flood the stage. This new piece by former Forsythe disciples Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah is a choreographic tidal wave with a seemingly unstoppable undertow. EIFO EFI forces us to give up our safe reliance on discernible, meaningful individual elements, causing us to lose ourselves in the multiple sensations of this machinery of cognitive overload. In this manner, the group discovers new ways to intertwine the experiences of the audience and performers, and to question the theatrical direction of perception.

Tickets are available for the following Performances. For tickets click here.
Saturday, January 14, 2017 @ 8:00 PM
Sunday, January 15, 2017 @ 2:00 PM

ODYSSEY THEATRE – 2055 South Sepulveda Blvd. – 90025 Los Angeles

Chocolate Wasp Nests – Wespennester

Today we are adding a chocolate macaroon with slivered almonds and a touch of cloves to our Weihnachstbäckerei. A very light but intensely flavored Christmas cookie satisfying your chocolate cravings. Thank you Christine R. from San Diego!

Ingredients for 60 pieces:

250g slivered almonds

2 tbsp sugar

250g bittersweet chocolate

4 egg whites

250g sugar

1 pinch ground cloves

Directions:

Spread the slivered almonds on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with the 2 tbsp sugar. Bake them in the oven at 392F degrees for about 15 minutes to let them get golden brown.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Carefully add the sugar and the ground cloves while continuing to beat the egg whites.

Continue to mix the mixture with the electric mixer (on a lower level) for about another 10 minutes until the mixture takes on a glossy and thick appearance. Slowly add and fold into the mixture the slivered almonds and the melted chocolate.

With 2 teaspoons make little heaps of dough and put them on a greased baking sheet.

Bake the cookies on the lowest rack in the preheated oven (302 F ) for about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Let us know your favorite German Christmas Cookie Recipe and send it to CaliforniaGermans(at)gmail.com !

Rum Squares – Rumwürfel

Gusti F. from Northern California shared her easy to bake recipe for delicious Rumwürfel/Rum Squares. Let’s say it’s a cookie for adults, since the rum flavor is a bit strong for the kids. But I can assure you, you will fall in love with these Rum Squares! They are just so delectable! – Thank you, Gusti!

Ingredients for the sponge dough mixture:

160 g butter

4 whole eggs

500g sugar

500g flour

(60g cocoa if you like the dough to be chocolate colored inside; or you can make half a batch with brown dough and the other half with light dough)

3/4 of a Dr. Oetker baking powder bag

1 small cup of milk

Ingredients for the chocolate/coconut coating:

500g powdered sugar

8 rows of “Blockschokolade” (baking chocolate)

3/4 l rum

1 -2 bags of coconut flakes

Directions:

1. Combine the butter, eggs, sugar, flower, baking powder and milk and blend it into a sponge cake mixture (Rührteig). Once smooth, put half of the dough mixture aside and mix in the cocoa so you can make half a batch of rum squares that a chocolaty inside.

2. Smooth out the dough on a baking sheet that’s covered with parchment paper and put it in the oven for 45 minutes at 356 F.

3. In the meantime, while the cake mixture is baking, prepare the chocolate coating: Grind the baking chocolate (“Blockschokolade”) and mix it in with the powdered sugar. Slowly add the 3/4 l of rum to the mixture while stirring continuously and blending it into a somewhat pasty mixture.

4. After 45 min take the baking sheet out of the oven and cut the cake into little squares.

5. Put the coconut flakes into a bowl. Take each little cake square and dunk it into the chocolate-rum mixture, let the excess chocolate mixture drop off and then roll the chocolate square in the coconut flakes.

6. After step 5, put each square straight into an airtight container so that the aroma of the tasty Rum Squares is preserved.

One of my favorite holidays since living in the U.S. has definitely been Thanksgiving. I love getting together with friends to cook, chat, eat, and just have a great time. We do have Thanksgiving in Germany as well, but it’s not being celebrated the way the Americans do, at least when I was still living there.

When I was a child in elementary school, I remember that our class hosted a play for the parents at a farm in the forest on the actual Thanksgiving Day. The families gathered at the school in the morning before everyone, including teachers, kids, and parents participated in the approximately 20-minute walk towards the forest.

Once we reached the destination, the entertainment part started. I don’t remember many specific details except all of us singing songs together and the kids performing a play for the parents, praising all the great things the earth provided us with. That was pretty much all we did for Thanksgiving.

Coming over here, I really started seeing Thanksgiving more as a holiday and opened up to celebrating it. I mean, I moved all the way over here to get used to a different culture, might as well indulge in the American customs. I have celebrated in Texas a couple years and in California. Sometimes, my friends put together a Friendsgiving a couple days before the actual Thanksgiving Day, so I got to celebrate it twice in one year.

This year will be the first year where I won’t be celebrating on the actual day. Fortunately, my dear friend Katy (name changed due to privacy) put on a wonderful Friendsgiving celebration this past Saturday. It had an interesting twist giving the fact that my friend is vegan. I personally don’t eat meat myself and am pretty open to different diets and loved the various dishes.

Another Thanksgiving “tradition” I had to get used to as well was Black Friday. It is so crazy to me how people are lining up in front of stores for hours just to get a great bargain, when Thanksgiving should actually be all about being thankful for what we have. I love that there are certain stores that advertise the importance of being with family instead of shopping and keep their doors closed.

But however all of you are spending your Thanksgiving, I hope you are having a wonderful time.

———————————————————————————————–————Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She has been living in Southern California since 2011.

If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.

So we thought of having a German Christmas Cookie Challenge!! …Are you in?

Send us your authentic and most loved German Christmas Cookie recipe and be featured here on our website!

Do you have a special recipe that makes you remember those cozy candlelight evenings with family and friends back in Germany? We need it!

Help us bring the comfort and warmth of the beautiful ‘Adventszeit’ (Advent Season) to all the CaliforniaGermans expats here in California! There is nothing like the scent of freshly baked cookies bringing Christmas spirit into our homes.

Send in your favorite German Christmas Cookie recipe to californiagermans(AT)gmail.com

Every Friday until December 23, the night before German Christmas, we will feature a cookie recipe that is special to a CaliforniaGermans at “Weihnachtsbäckerei” on our website.

To start off the official Christmas Baking Season, here is a Christmas favorite of my family: Vanillekipferl (Vanilla Crescents), a recipe passed down from my grandmother.

Vanillakipferl – Vanilla Crescents

Ingredients:

250 g flour (add a pinch of baking powder)

125 g sugar

3 egg yolks

200 g unsalted butter

125 g almond flour

50 g hazelnut flour

Bourbon Vanilla Extract

Combine all the ingredients to a dough by hand not the mixer. We call it ‘Knetteig’. Start out with the flour to which you add the almond flour, hazelnut flour and the sugar. Then add the butter (should be at room temperature and cut into little thin pieces) and then add the egg yolks and some Bourbon Vanilla extract. You can start mixing it all with a fork but once the dough gets heavier it’s easiest to just get in with your hands to work a nice smooth dough.

Put the dough to ‘rest’ into the fridge for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes cut a chunk off the main dough to make a long 1 inch role which you then cut into 2 inch pieces. (Repeat that step for the whole dough) Take each 2 inch piece and roll it into a crescent with the ends thinning out towards the end. Place your crescents on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350-390 °F

Then turn the still warm Vanillekipferl in Vanilla Sugar , and your first German Christmas cookie is ready to eat!

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